Adjustable card-index.



J. H. RAND.

ADJUSTABLE CARD INDEX.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 19.1910.

Patented J an. 30, 1912.

JAMES H. or NEWTON, mnssnenusnrrs.

ADJUSTABLE CARD-INDEX.

Specification 6f Letters-Patent;

Patented Jan. 30,1912.

Application flld May 18, 1910. S ria1 No. 561,948.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES H. RAND; a citizen of the United States and resident of Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Adjustable Card-Indexes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices of the class commonly known as card index systems and its object is to provide a card index system in which the cards or sheets are so held that the margins of all the cards -shallbe so spaced as to be at all times visible; in which any one of the cards may be fully exposed by turning back the overlying cards on their hinges, and entries made thereon, or inspected, without removing the. card from the holder; in which the cards, while freely removable, adjustable and interchangeable, will be held in the holder against accidental dislodgment and loss, towhich ordinarycard indexes are subject unless held by a lock rod;

in which the whole surface of the card to the very hinge at its edge is available for writing; and in which the card body covers and conceals the supporting strip and the hinge by which it is connected thereto. These and other novel and useful features will hereinafter be more particularly pointed out.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate one embodiment of the invention,- Figure 1 is a perspective View of a card index embodying one form of my invention; Fig. 2 is a face view or elevation of said card index, parts of the guide flanges being broken away; Fig. 3 is a cross section, enlarged,through several of the card-supporting strips and cards hinged thereto, showing their relation to one another in a card index; and Fig. 4 is a perspective view, enlarged, of one of my specially constructed cards, partly broken away.

The cards are mounted in a frame A, made of sheetmetal such as tin, or other suitable material, having inwardly turned flanges, a and a, forming channels or guides for the card-supporting strips B. One of said flanges a, is made longer than the other flange a, thus forming a deeper channel, in which is lodged a yielding follower strip a pressed by an undulated spring a against the ends of the card'supporting strips B, thereby yieldingly holding the opposite ends of the strips B under the flange a.

The card-si1pporting strips B are prefer- :ably made of comparatively thick, heavy cardboard, cut rectangular in form, and'of uniform length .and uniform depth. Hinged to ,-the front or outer face of each strip B, is a card body I) of relatively light or thin cardboardor paper. The card body In overlies the face of the strip B, and the upper edges of the card body and strip are substantially eoterminous so that the card body covers and conceals the strip, and is available for writing a to 1ts very edge, on the part; overly ng the strip as well as on the part depending below the stri The hinge preferably. consists of a fold d strip- 12 of textile fabric, suchas muslin, or other suitable flexible material, glued to the face of the strip and to the backof the card body along its edge, in the position shown, so that the oint b of the hinge will be between the extreme upper or outer edges of the strip and card body. I The card body terminates short of each end of the strip B, or is spaced from the ends thereof, so as to leave the ends of the strip free to engage the guide flanges a and a stantially the same breadth as the space between the guide flanges a and a so that they will occupy the whole space framed by the marginal flanges of the, frame, as best shown in Flg. 2. In such case each card is provided w th a recess 6 cut away adjacent to the huge in the end next to the flange. a, to afford a clearance for the flange a when the card and strip are moved endwise.

Preferably the cards are made of sub-' Inasmuch as the cards 6 are hinged to the front faces of the strip B, it will be seen that both. cards and hinges lie wholly. in front of the plane of the strips B, and the strips B- may abut against each other edge to edge as'shown in Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive.

As the sti'ips and cards respectively are all of uniform depth, the abutting strips will constitute spacers which determine the extent of the exposed margins O said cards. The exposed margins may be used for names, as shown in the drawings, or for other identifying characters. Thus the exposed index margins of the cards, uniformly spaced by the-supporting strips, are always in view, and the desired card ma" ;be selected at a glance and referred to without handling and searching through the stack of cards as is necessary in an ordinary card file.

The individual cards may be readily removed or inserted by moving the strip B endwise toward the left, thus pushing back the spring-pressed follower a until' the right hand end of the strip is clear of the flange a". To facilitate this operation the strip Bmaybe provided with a hole I), in which any suitable pointed implement, such as an ordinary. pencll point or the small end of a pen holder, may be inserted to push the strip and card toward the left. Such hole is shown in Fig. 4, but not in Fig. 2, and its use is not essential, since the strips and cards may be removed by hand without the aid of such pointed implement and hole. It will also be understood that the strips B will slide freely up and down in their guide channels so that the file may be changed by the addition, withdrawal and transposition of cards, to meet changing requirements, as readily as in an ordinary card index.

When it is desired to make entries upon one of the cards, for example, that indexed T. B. Griggs, or to examine the same, all the cards above the name B. Griggs are lifted, as shown in Fig. 1, exposing the desired card, which still lies flat and may be readily written on or inspected without removing the card from the file.

As the card's depend some distance-below thelr supporting strips, I provide a filler piece Gin the lower part of the frame A, having the same thickness as the strips B,

to hold the lowermost card so that its card body b will not extend below the edge of the frame. i

The device above described may be used as a card ledger or account book, order book, merchandise account, or in short for any purpose to which ordinary card indexes or card records are adapted.

The facility with which any one card may be selected and examined, has already been alluded to. In, case it is desired to run through and inspect all the cards, or all in a certain section of the index, the card with which the inspection is to start may be swung upward on its hinge, by the thumb or fingercarrying with it the cards above, and the edges of the cards may then be allowed to sl1p past the fingers one at a time, whereupon the cards will successively drop by gravity into their normal position. The ease and rapidity with which all the cards may thus be successively brought into view, is in striking contrast with the inconvenience and tedlousness attendin a similar inspection of the cards in an ordinary card index file.

I claim:

1. In an adjustable card index, a frame having inwardly extending flanges forming guides, a plurality of removable and interchangeable card-supporting strips, the ends of which are held in said guides, said strips being movable endwise in said guides to permit the removal of any one of said strips without disturbing the others, and cards hinged to said strips and spaced from the ends thereof adjacent to their hinged edges to afford a clearance for the guide flange of the frame.

2. In an adjustable card index, a frame having'inwardly extending flanges formmg guides, a plurality of removable and inter changeable card-supporting strips, the ends of which are held in said guldes, sald strlps being movable endwise in .said guides to permit the removal of any one of said strips without disarranging the others, and cards of substantially the same breadth as the space between said guide flanges, hinged to said strips and provided with recesses 1n their ends adjacent to said hinged edges, af-

fording a clearance for the guide flange of the frame when the strips are moved endwise.

3. In an adjustable card index, a frame having inwardly extending flanges forming guides, a plurality of removable and interchangeable card-supporting strips, the ends of which are held in said guides, and cards hinged to said strips and terminating short of the ends thereof adjacent to the hinged edges leaving the ends of the strip projecting to engage the guide-flanges of the frame, said strips and cards being individually removable from the frame without disturbing the others, by withdrawing the ends of said strips endwise from said guide flanges.

Signed by me at Boston, Massachusetts, this 14th day of May, 1910.

v JAMES H. RAND.

Witnesses:

ROBERT CUsHMAN,

CHARLES D. WOODBERRY 

